Brace yourself for this one, Canadian baseball fans.
Reds first baseman and Toronto product Joey Votto offered up a spicy take on the state of baseball in his own home country, uttering some of the most unpatriotic quotes you’ll ever hear from a Canadian professional athlete.
In an interview on Yahoo! Sports' MLB podcast, the 34-year-old opined with some eye-opening comments on his hometown team Toronto Blue Jays getting no-hit by fellow Canadian pitcher James Paxton on Canadian soil, or shall we say turf.
"I don't care almost at all about Canadian baseball.”
“I wasn't raised inside of Canadian baseball really. I'm coming up on half of my life being in the United States working and being supported by American baseball."
"As far as Toronto, and Canadian baseball, and the country of Canada, and (James Paxton) being Canadian, I don't care at all," said Votto. "(Paxton), or the Jays, or Canada, in general, may disagree with that, but I really couldn't give a rat's ass about that."
“Sorry, I don’t mean to be a Grinch about it,” Votto said.
The 2010 and 2017 recipient of the Lou Marsh Award as Canada’s top athlete played for his country at the 2009 and 2013 World Baseball Classic. To say the comments are a bit peculiar would be a massive understatement.
Votto didn’t hold back his candid thoughts when asked about the Reds’ dreadful 14-28 record that has them in the basement of the National League Central.
You wonder how all the Canadian coaches and trainers that helped Votto achieve his goals by getting to the big leagues would feel about this. To say that you could give a rats’ ass about the country that helped him become a superstar making millions of dollars by playing a child’s game is a bit of a slap in the face.
Don’t expect Votto to be representing his country in the future anytime soon. Something isn’t quite right here, and you wonder if there’s some sort of rift between Baseball Canada and Votto, because this seems to be way out of left field from someone who one day could be considered the greatest baseball player to ever come out of the country, although these comments may taint some perceptions, like this one from fellow Canadian Dalton Pompey.
Perhaps Votto was more so aiming these comments towards the Jays and Baseball Canada, and not that he doesn't care for his country. Regardless, he could've clarified his comments a little clearer, so fans don't jump to foregone conclusions.
